Dan Parris’s documentary looks at a program by the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis to offer seven area college students a crash course in political advocacy and activism in the aftermath of the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, MO. One of the students becomes involved in the Black Lives Matter movement and organizes civil disobedience protests, while the other six place their primary focus on education policy reform, specifically by trying to lobby for more state scholarship funds for low-income students and college-age immigrants enrolled in the DACA program. While the foundation deserves commendation for offering young people insight into how the political process works and the tactics needed to attract the attention of legislators (one elected official is invited via Twitter to meet with the students), the film clearly adopts a one-sided political agenda, reaching a low point when it belittles the notion of merit-based scholarship with flippant commentary inaccurately suggesting that parents of academically gifted students can easily afford to pay for college. Optional. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)
Show Me Democracy
(2017) 84 min. DVD: $89: public libraries & high schools; $295: colleges & universities. DRA. The Video Project. PPR. Closed captioned. Volume 33, Issue 4
Show Me Democracy
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